Delirium (2018) Movie Review with Ending Explained

 

The Story

Delirium is very thought provoking horror film that many of the horror fans have missed.. The story is about a man recently released from a mental institute inherits a mansion after his wealthy parents die. After a series of disturbing events, he comes to believe it is haunted.

The Review (Spoiler Free)

This film was innovative, thought provoking, and brilliantly constructed. If you enjoy movies that require thought and don’t spoon feed you everything you won’t be disappointed. Definitely heavily psychological and the horror element is not to be taken at all literally.

Delirium follows the story of Tom played by Topher Grace.  He just released from Metal Hospital.  It appears that he went through some traumatic experience in the past and he started to be delusional and see things.  So after his father’s death, he is released from the hospital to live at father’s big mansion. So for 30 days, he is stuck there while they observe his progress.  So stage is set for some entertaining horror film.  Throughout the movie, the audience are force to guess what is real and what is in Tom’s delusional mind.

In terms of horror element, you won’t be disappointed.  The movie sets the creepy and eerie mood perfectly.  There are few very good jump scares and many scary scenes. The movie is lot darker than it appears to be.

Throughout the movie, it slowly revealed Tom’s trouble past and some of the traumatic experiences that he is struggling with which helps to determine what is real and what Is all in his head.

Some people might think the ending is bit anti-climactic but when you look at the movie as whole, ending makes perfect sense.

At the end, Delirium has good horror elements to it, but it is more of psychological thriller.  As we try to find what has happened to Tom’s character, and how he is coping with his traumatic past.

Ending Explained (Spoiler Warning!)

Whole point of the movie is to figure out what is real and what is in Tom’s head.  Obviously, a great deal here is not happening in the literal sense.  I suspect the time in the psychiatric hospital was meant to be an actual event, and all the traumatic events in Tom’s past is real.  But when Tom moved into his father’s mansion, it is hard to say whether or not he is actually residing in the house, or whether it is meant to represent a feeling of confinement.

Here we have an individual battling mental illness who seems to be systematically reliving painful events from his past that he has yet to come to terms with.  As he moved in the father’s mansion, he started to deal with painful events in his past.  We see him dealing with his dysfunctional relationship with father and mother.  Also, his painful relationship with his brother, and specially, his part in murdering of innocent girl.  Even the final scene is almost exact recreation of the murder he witnessed, but failed to stop. Except this time, he intervenes and saves the girl, who then saves him from drowning at the hands of his brother, a direct reversal of the original traumatic event.

The final scene in the movie entails the police showing up and simply asking, “Is this your house”. He simply replies, “It is now.” The house has represented his mind and the demons he is battling the whole time. Only after coming to terms with the events of his childhood and reimagining the traumatic event of the murder, he finally free. This is also indicated by him pulling the calendar with his countdown to freedom off the door, as he no longer needs it.  The psychological battle has been won and the house (his own mind) is finally his.  At the end, the movie is about Tom’s coming to terms with his trouble past and trying to be well.

This movie makes no sense if viewed superficially as something that is happening exactly as we see it depicted. But the trademark of many mental illnesses is belief in unbelievable things. Delusion is by definition illogical, irrational, and often terrifying.

In the Nutshell

Delirium is thought provoking horror film that is lot better than you think it is.  [5 out of 5 stars]

If you already saw this movie, help us rate the movie by click on the Star Rating. 

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Genre: Haunted House

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5 comments

  1. TL;DR: It feels half baked rather than a fully fleshed out psychological ride. Rather than play with fun ideas like Tom’s hallucinations and provide coherent, cohesive timelines that come from crafting a story, it feels like not enough details and left me confused like huge gaps were pulled from the movie.

    This movie is horrendously confusing in it’s delivery of details. For example it’s implied that Alex and Tom’s mother left after the boys committed their crime so how does Alex know about her in that bunker? On top of that it’s highly implied their father was the real culprit in creating these 2 mentally unstable children but as far as the audience knows it was a normal happy family. So lines like “our father created you and me” make no sense. Was he intentionally creating psychopaths? Was he the cause of traumatic events? It’s heavily implied his dad was a sicko but with these two boys there’s no indication of trauma other than spontaneously Alex likes killing girls and forces Tom to watch him kill a girl whom Tom had a crush on. From then it’s implied this is the only traumatic event for Tom that unhinges him and it’s never truly explained why Alex is mentally disturbed. It feels half baked rather than a fully fleshed out psychological ride. Rather than play with fun ideas like Tom’s hallucinations and provide coherent, cohesive timelines that come from crafting a story, it feels like not enough details and left me confused like huge gaps were pulled from the movie.

     
    1. And Alex was not the main character so why does his mental illness have to be discussed also his father did create psychopaths if you actually listen to Alex speak in the movie you will hear him say his father was sick and now it’s in their blood something like that. Like come on dude watch the movie and listen before you comment this sounds stupid as hell. Like you didn’t see Alex go in the bunker before anyone else that’s how he knew his mother was down there 🙄

       
    2. My theory is that Alex was actually the reason why the cell is underneath the pool. The phone says “daddy’s listening,” which doesn’t make a bit of sense for the wife as much as it makes sense for his child.

       
  2. Alex knows about his mother in the bunker because he saw her first when he went down in the bunker? Like did you actually watch the movie before you made this post?

     

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